T he home of famous historical document collector Dimitrije Mita Petrović and his wife Mi- leva always welcomed many prominent intellectuals of the era, providing a gathering place for the cultural and artistic elite. This harmoni- ous family was blessed with as many as thirteen children, nine of whom survived to adulthood, and this Petrović family’s most famous duo were certainly Nadežda and Rastko Petrović. Nadežda was born in October 1873, which is why we decided to celebrate her in the Month of Artists. Her educa- tion began at the First Serbian Drawing School, but by 1898 she’d already relo- cated to Munich to continue her paint- ing studies at the School of Anton Ažbe, where Wassily Kandinsky and Alexej Jaw- lensky were then also studying. Nadež- da would also be greatly influenced by her socialising with Ivan Meštrović, Mi- roslav Kraljević, Rihard Jakopič and oth- ers. United in Ažbe’s atelier, these young Serbian, Croatian and Slovenian paint- ers would later stage the first joint exhibi- tions with a Yugoslav orientation. Nadežda presented her first – and un- fortunately only – solo exhibition on the premises of the Great School in Bel- grade on 25 th August 1900. Although her talent was acknowledged to an ex- tent, she was mercilessly criticised at the time for her “innovations”, but also for the role models that shaped her impres- sionist paintings. She departed for Par- is in 1910, where she took up residence in Ivan Meštrović’s studio. It was dur- ing this period that she was introduced to avant-garde artistic trends through art- ists like Matisse and Picasso, while she would also meet Rodin personally. Nadežda spent her final years as a vol- unteer nurse - firstly in the Balkan Wars, and then in an improvised field hospi- tal at the front during World War I. As she confronted death while tirelessly bandaging the wounded, Nadežda still managed to do a little painting. At the height of the conflict, with the hospi- tal inundated with cases of epidemic ty- phus, an exhausted Nadežda painted the tents of the Valjevo field hospital with the last of her strength, until she was al- so left bedridden by the infectious dis- ease. She pass forever into legend on 3 rd April 1915.
INTERNATIONAL ARTIST DAY Celebrating Serbian heroine Nadežda Petrović She occupies a special place at the very peak of the painter’s pantheon, but has an equally glorious position in Serbian history
Art » Umetnost | 81
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